Life's meanderings, wonderings, inspiration...sending it out to the great "marketplace of ideas."
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Saturday, December 31, 2016

“Gotta Have Faith”

In 2016, we were all sad to see so many iconic figures leave
this world…reminding us all that as young as we feel, we all share the same
human affliction of mortality.

And as the last days of 2016 have come to a close, we’ve all
kind of held our breath…after having heard, almost daily, of more losses.

I’ll be the first to admit that it’s kind of silly to take a
celebrity death so seriously.But I’m
not sure that’s what’s really even happening.For me, I think it has more to do with what they represent.When you hear of 50 something and 60
something people “passing away” suddenly, it gives you pause.You start to think about your own mortality,
and feel sad to see so much of what made up your own history and coming of age
moments…well, leave us behind.It’s way
more exciting to be reading about a come back tour as a headline…and we won’t
see one now for the Eagles or David Bowie.

It doesn’t get any more epic for me than Star Wars to freeze
a moment from my childhood.And thinking
about one of the first modern day damsels in distress turned heroine in
disguise…well yeah, it makes me sad to know the person, who played the
character has died.Carrie Fisher was a
champion for many things in real life, well beyond her reign as Princess Leia.

I can still remember my Sony “boom box,” sitting on top of
the white split rail fencing that encircled my grandparents’ yard on the farm…where
I would indulge in my own fantasy world of “Footloose,” only I was bopping to
“When Doves Cry” or “Jesse’s Girl” (afraid to say that out loud…Rick’s still
with us, right?).And David Bowie, on
MTV, looking strange and exotic…unique, intriguing and terrifying all at once…with
that unmistakable and incredibly sultry voice…with songs like “Let’s Dance,” and
“Under Pressure” (awesome mix with Queen; Freddie Mercury, another gone too
soon) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoDh_gHDvkk.
And my personal favorite, “Space
Oddity”…only I had to look that up because I always thought it was called
“Major Tom…”And then the real life
hero, John Glenn, who made history well beyond our own lifetimes, with the
claim to fame as having been the first American to orbit Earth…and then went
back in space at 77!That’s freaking
amazing.Godspeed to you, Mr. Glenn.

“I'm stepping through the doorAnd I'm floating in a most peculiar wayAnd the stars look very different todayFor hereAm I sitting in a tin canFar above the worldPlanet Earth is blueAnd there's nothing I can do”

They say nothing makes us remember like a familiar
song.Somehow, losing these familiar
melodies in our lives brings a little tinge of melancholy to our own glory days
(Bruce…still with us, right?).

Eagles lead singer, Glen Frey, another loss in
2016…transcends decades of fans and too many hit songs to pick just one (though
Hotel California is the first that comes to mind).And funniest memory would be the reunion tour
for this band, dubbing their album “Hell Freezes Over” (1994), because that’s
when they collectively said what would have to happen for them to reunite…but
staying relevant has a way of changing our minds, right?

And Gene Wilder…what an awesome talent.From Young Frankenstein to Willy Wonka (the
real Willy Wonka…sorry Depp man, but I wasn’t a fan of the remake)…amazing
actor, who knew how to make people laugh out loud (long before LOL shorthand we
use in texting).

Behind the scenes was no less tragic, as we said goodbye to
Gary Marshall, who was responsible for the best Tuesday night line up
ever…Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Three’s Company (1978).Marshall was the creator of both Happy Days
and Laverne and Shirley.And the spinoff
from Happy Days, Mork and Mindy, was a great show on Thursday nights (we are
still mourning the great loss of Robin Williams in 2014).

2 comments:

Uh, Prince? I thought 2016 got off to a bad start with George Clayton Johnson dying on Christmas day 2015. He co-wrote Logan's Run and several Twilight Zone episodes such as Kick the Can and A Game of Pool. Then Abe Vigoda got forgotten in the mourning for Bowie. He was almost immortal at 94. I just watched him again in The Godfather yesterday. Keith Emerson AND Greg Lake. Ali?! Ralph Stanley, that I saw live in Cincy in 2012. Leon Russell. Mose Allison. It was a bad year. Or maybe, now that we're older, every year is going to seem like this.

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About Me

I've been a writer since I was a child, scrawling down sentence fragments and notes on scrap pieces of paper...imagining the future and how I might change the world. Over the years, my writings began to take shape more to maintain my own sanity than any strategic thought process. I kept journals and poetry for years. Imagine opening a time capsule twenty years later only to find relevant, thought provoking essays...once useless journals, now transformed into a new age of blogging and sharing. A box full of treasures to share and re-ignite my creative side of writing. This time capsule's day has come!